Formula One

[Govangirl]

Whit!!!!!! It said that Vettel and Jensen bumped into each other- no way!!!!!!! Poor Jensen was minding his own business and Vettel should get more punishment than a drive through for that!!! Poor Button, he really needed the points today. Hamilton needing to pit soon but I'm too wound up to watch!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Ags]

Not quite sure what Vettel was doing today!! Poor Jensen !!, but well done Lewis

[the big man]

the pressure seems to be getting to vettel , his driving yesterday would be better suited to stockcars not f1, the young german has a win at all cost mentality at the moment , wont be long before he seriously injures someone and himself with his crazy stunts. button did not deserve to be shunted off the circuit the way he was , should have been a maclaren 1 -2 but that was not to be , great drive by lewis yesterday , back at the top of the drivers championship.
next race at monza should also favour the maclaren with monza being a low down force track , also monza is the fastest track of the season. dont expect redbull to push maclaren to much till the races after monza.
redbull surely must favour webber as being thier number 1 chance at the title , as mclaren must now surely favour lewis.
team orders will again come into play maybe even at monza

[bill]

At least Vettel now realises it is the opposition he should be crashing into ,and not his team mate.Thank God for the rain which brought some life to what would have been another procession.

[The Insider]

Guys

I never saw the whole Race on Sunday even though I was there, I had a bit on.

Anyway, its that shit-tip Monza next, it really makes me laugh when they (all F1 and media types) criticise Silverstone, anyone on this blog been to Monza??

If you have had that misfortune, I bet you had real trouble finding it never mind getting in and finding your seat, what a total SHITHOLE, one of the worst dumps on the calander, there is no one apart from the Spags like the place.

So what will happen in Sh-Italy??

Well, its all about who has the best engine reliability if everything else goes by the numbers.

During my time at Cosworth we always tested engines for high-speed and long-distance durability by simulating laps of Monza on the Dyno, its the only circuit on the calendar that uses FULL THROTTLE for 70% of the lap, Hockenheim was the closest to that until they chopped the long back section off and ruined the track, idiots.

Anyway, its a different kind of a race Monza, very low downforce so the cars run little or no wing period and its ruthless on brakes, ask anyone who has worked at this race, after Friday running everyone involved with the cars in a hands-on capacity is black with brake dust, its and aweful weekend all round.

You might get the impression Italy is not my favourite country to work in, your right, its crap, its nice for a little holiday, thats fine, but try running F1 Cars and all the gubbins that goes with it, very frustrating, its a chaotic, disorganized dump, the foods great but the infrastructure and corruption is totally pants, period.

Unfortunately I drove from Spa to there (Monza) and flew back yesterday, on Sunday I drive back for Force India and fly home next Wednesday then fly back on race day to drive home again, three times in two weeks in my least favourite place.

Im not complaining about the work, its just the place.......TOTAL PANTS.

TI

[Ags]

TI _ some people I know are heading to Monza next Sunday!! I'm really disappointed for them after reading your post. Any hints or tips to make it good?

[bill]

Ferrari walk away with no further penalty after today's F.I.A. disciplinary hearing . No surprise there then.

[The Insider]

Ags

Sorry for the late reply, that was my 2nd trip to Monza in two weeks, got back last night and it was yet again, painful.

Look I just dispise the place because I have to work there, they can't organize sh*t, the whole country is chaos, its fine for a long weekend and a holiday in Tuscany but its a TOTAL nightmare to work at in F1.

Any country that has little or no hard shoulders on their Motorways has to be questioned, there is NO planning and, get this, about 16 miles this side of Milan on the A4 Autostrada (Motorway) with NO hard shoulder of course (although they are now, slowly, for the last 10 years, putting in wider lanes and a hard shoulder) there is a BUS STOP, yes a BUS STOP on the motorway, its a big Lay-By, with NO entry or exit slip-road, how awesome is that??

Anyway, from a spectator pint of view I can't talk, I've never been to a Grand Prix, I worked at over 160 of them but I've never been as a spectator but I have heard all the horror stories about Monza, spectators showing up to find Italians in their seats, you won't get it back they are there to support the cheats in red.

When I started in F1 in 1998 we had to get all our kit out of the pitlane as the race finished, they invaded the pitlane and tried to steal EVERYTHING, I'm not kidding, its better now with proper security but its still painful.

Tell your friends to get there in plenty of time, find their seats and DO NOT give them up, the park that Monza is in is MASSIVE, there are numerous entrances, there is ZERO organization, lots of Bib Wearing Idiots that all related and have a job for the day, they have little or no communications, they have no maps or information and will NOT help you if you do not speak Spag, the stands are old and falling apart, the garages are crap, the power is dreadful, the water is dirty for washing trucks, the air in the garages is like the power, unreliable, and if your the radio man for the team like I was at Arrows, the allocated frequencies are pathetic, all in all a total SHITHOLE of THE worst kind.

Lets hope your friend have hospitality or alike and have a positive experience, my recommendation is to enjoy the food and wine and take the rest as it comes at you.

If they want to eat in a world class restaurant go the "Hotel de la Ville" next to the Palace that joins the park that the track sits in, it is quality and the desert tray is like nothing i have seen anywhere in the world.

To sum it up, its shit, its disorganized, the Italian fans are are fools who can see nothing but Italian through their Italian goggles, its one of the worst events on the calendar and if I never have to go back after this weekend I would be delighted.

A total DUMP of the worst kind.

Bill, Ferrari, Cheats, FIA (Ferrari International Assistance) been saying it for years, its a total joke, end of.

TI

But I do love Melbourne )

[The Insider]

No real surprise to see the Spags on pole in Monza folks.

Its not about high speed mechanical grip at this circuit, its about speed on the straights and braking, for speed you need power and their engine has some grunt but their chassis lacks the other characteristics that give the Red Bull overall advantage on most circuits.

Normal service will be resumed in Singapore.

Looking at the front of the grid it should be a bit tasty down at turn 1, its that shity chicane, I drove round it on Wednesday morning, its tight, and both Hamilton AND Vettel will want to make up places.

I leave for Monza at 3am tomorrow, eeek.

Back Tuesday night, will see the Race from the Force India Garage, I should arrive at the track around 1330.

Report next week.

TI

[the big man]

bbc looking to replace johnathan legard as martin brundles co commentator next season , all i can say is about time, legard to be replaced with moto gp commentator charlie cox .

[The Insider]

Big man

I've been bleating on about this for months, Legard is totally out of his depth in every area of the job, he's a journo, period and should stick to that, he is NO Live, F1, TV pundit, he has nothing to say.

Its a bit of an odd one for me, James Allen and I are friends, I like James a lot but in these situations I try to be pragmatic, professional and logical, think with the head and not the heart, the best man for the job, BY FAR, is David Croft from BBC Five Live on the Red Button.

Again I know Crofty, not as well as James but he has a great voice, he stays calm, he is VERY informed, he knows everything going on in the pitlane because he knows the lads, the lads that do the job, thats us that work on the cars.

If you listen to Crofty with Anthony Davidson its a joy, they have that nice little rapor going on, Crofty has this easy going and easy to listen to manner and EVERYONE I know likes him, he can walk into any garage for a cup of tea or coffee and he's welcome, well maybe not with the Spags.

When the race starts he delivers exiting commentry and talks total sense, can identify all the drivers, understands how the cars function and work and understands the tactics unlike Legard, he IS by far the best choice.

My opinion of course, might not be yours.

TI

[the big man]

your right insider david croft would be most peoples choice, but charlie cox from moto gp is the bbcs prefered choice if reports on crash.net are true .

[The Insider]

Hi guys n girls

So thats the end of the European season and all the lads head of to Singapore this weekend for the final push of Formula 1 2010.

They all seem to like it there, maybe it's the Ladyboys , maybe not, more like the food and the fact that Singers is a rather nice friendly place to go in general.

Last week in Sh-Italy (as we like to discribe it, purely from a work point of view, you all know by now that I'm NOT a fan) I was talking to an old mate from Stewart GP, he's now at Spag Racing, thats the red team that has Black Beauty on their car, you know the one, they cheat a lot; anyway, we were shooting the breeze about this and that and discussing the fact that they won that day.

Now for anyone who does not follow the finer technical in's n out's of the sport you might not be aware that the engine regulation freeze has somewhat hampered the Renault power unit, as you might expect the Spag Engine has a bit more grunt, around 20 bhp, that was the difference in Monza, its all about straight line speed there and having the ability to pull the wing down these long straights even though its a low downforce circuit.

All the remaining races SHOULD suit the the Fizzy Drinks and M. C. Laren's cars, they have the superior mechanical grip, especially the RBR's but you can't count the Spags out with Alonso behind the wheel, he's just a bit handy in any machinary and they have definately improved the car in the last few months.

It's going to be interesting and it should go all the way to the wire (I hope) with a few surprises along the way, you can never predict what will happen from one race to another especially in Asia and Brazil with a humid climate that can throw a thunderstorm at you from nowhere.

On another note, I was in a team garage last Sunday having a look at the Pitstops when the young lad at Hispania was run over by Sakon, it was a pretty violant affair, he was super lucky not to be seriously injured and it reminded me how dangerous the pitlane actually is in running conditions, people often ask me what its like to DO pitstops, I normally say, go and stand on a duel carriageway and watch cars go past at 60mph, thats the nearest thing you will get to it.

Monaco in the days before they changed the pitlane was the worst, I was on the back left corner, always on the outside when they (the cars) pass within 12 inches of you coming in and going out in Race conditions, nothing compared to the old days though when there was no pitlane speed limit, if (as a team) you were at the bottom end of the pitlane, the cars were doing anything from 120 to around 160 mph by the time they passed you on their way out, that WAS mad and just unthinkable in modern times.

Fortunately I was only ever run over three times, twice at Jaguar in the same race (Indianapolis 2000) once by Johnny Herbert and once by Eddie Irvine, it was very wet and the pitbox was on smooth concrete, not ideal, the next time was at Jordan, luckily all minor injuries and we laugh about it now, not so for the kid at Hispania, it was gruesome and he was super lucky not to be killed.

Anyway, will I be at anymore GP's this year, might be in Korea, not sure yet, would rather go to Brazil, I have great friends there and it's been way to long since I last seen them.

TI

[The Insider]

Paul De Resta

Looks like our Scottish friend young Mr De Resta IS going to get his full time F1 drive after all.

On May 12th this year I mentioned that Force India (who I was working for on contract at the time) were REALLY impressed with the lad and I think I did say to watch out for this kid getting his chance, after working with the lad at races it was obvious that he would get that drive, he's just that good and is the complete package.

That said you never know what will happen in F1, drivers get better offers from other teams and teams are bought and sold so the 2011 season is a long way off at the moment, you know that old saying " a week is a long time in F1"

Watch out for him in winter testing, he is super consistant.

TI

[the big man]

hope he gets a chance next season, will he replace sutill who is tipped to take over from schumacher should he decide to retire at the end of season.